Sony still won’t pursue backwards compatibility for the PS4

Microsoft dropped a bombshell when they announced during their E3 press conference that the Xbox One will be receiving the ability to play Xbox 360 games, such backwards compatibility being a feature, until now, that neither of the leading consoles had. It was not long before people began to ask just how Sony would respond.

Speaking with Polygon however, head of Sony Computer Entertainment’s world wide studios, Shuhei Yoshida made it clear Sony has no intention bringing such a feature to the PS4. “The backward compatibility news was interesting. The technology involved must be very challenging.” But as far as the announcement’s effect on Sony, “I don’t think we will change our approach. The PlayStation 4 doesn’t have backward compatibility.”

When pushed further as to why the PS4 doesn’t have the feature, Yoshida simply responded, “Backward compatibility is hard. I won’t say we’ll never do it, but it’s not an easy thing to do. If it was easy we would have done that.”

While it doesn’t have backwards compatibility, the PS4 does have PlayStation Now, a service that allows gamers to rent last-gen games and stream them to their PS4s or other devices. While technically allowing for PS3 games to be played on the PS4, the service functions in a way that many, including Microsoft in their initial reveal of backwards compatibility, have pointed to as a monetization of the feature.

One of our editors recently shared his views on Microsoft’s announcement, asking if the push for backwards compatibility was actually the right move for Microsoft. Are you disappointed the PS4 won’t be receiving backwards compatibility any time soon, if at all? Or do you think gaming companies should be looking more to the future? Let us know in the comments.

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